Category: fitness

Here’s a great post you should read about why treadmills are bad for rehab and performance called “The tragedy of the treadmill.” Great title BTW. Here’s the money graph:

“Because the belt pulls your leg through, rather (than) your own leg, there is a significant decrease in the muscles in the back of your leg (i.e. hamstrings and glutes).

The result is an increased stress on the quads (muscles in the front of your leg) and the knee joint. If this pattern is repeated enough so that it is learned, it will transfer negatively when the athlete runs on the ground and may result in hamstring pulls because of the athlete’s newly learned ‘skill’. “

We’ve seen this repeatedly in our gym. Regular gym goers who use treadmills come in all the time with hamstring pulls because using the treadmill weakens the hamstrings and glutes. In fact, I can often spot a treadmill runner when they’re wearing shorts. They have over-developed quads and non-existent hammies and glutes. This muscle imbalance is likely to lead to a back injury, hamstring pull, and greatly impedes fat loss – something nearly every treadmill-er wants.

The reason treadmills are bad for fat loss is that the hamstrings and glutes are huge muscle groups that almost no one in the fitness industry knows how to work. That’s because strength training via the machines they use is all done sitting down. So you take your normal gym goers routine — sitting machine “strength” work plus treadmill running — and combine it with sitting nearly all day, and you have a terrible routine for fat loss. The back of your legs becomes nothing but a cushion. The hamstrings and glutes are some of the largest muscles in the body. When you don’t use them, the amount of calories burned goes way down. You also miss out on the benefits to building those muscles up — the more muscle you carry in those areas, the more calories you’ll burn even at rest. It’s small but adds up over time.

The solution is focus on movement patterns and avoid an artificial gym environment with its McFitness approach via machines. Properly done free weight squats, lunges, etc. combined with correct sprint mechanics done outside will get you started.

 You’ve got a great chance to get some great fitness results in your home or gym if they have kettlebells. We’re starting a kettlebell WOD (workout of the day) project is we can get 50 people to sign up for it over at the Kettlebell Taiwan (our other company) Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kettlebell-Taiwan/129458670435141

We’re going to post a sample WOD like this one in the pic and all you have to do to participate is let us know you’re willing to follow the workout and post your results and weight used in the comments under each workout on the Facebook page. If you’re willing to do that, you’re in! it’s FREE!

So come join us for some killer workouts! And if you need a kettlebell , let us know!

I put this out over a week ago:

Here we go. The Athena Project starts now:
WANTED! One Taiwanese female!
Do you want to get strong and fit like the picture below? Are you frustrated because you don’t know how to do it?
Hi, I’m Dave Chesser, head trainer and owner of the Formosa Fitness gym in Taipei, and I’m looking for ONE lucky lady that wants to get fit and gain muscle. You will get trained personally by me 3-4 times a week for 3-6 months FOR FREE. Here’s the requirements:
1. You have to join Formosa Fitness, where you will do all your workouts.
2. You have to agree to follow all my instructions about workout and diet, whether in the gym or at home.
3. You have to agree to allow us to take pictures, measurements, and videos of your workouts. The pictures and video will be tasteful, not exploitative.
4. You have to be willing to talk publicly on our Facebook pages about the process.
5. You have to agree to do this for a minimum of three months and up to six months.

In exchange for that, you will receive 3-4 private sessions a week for 3-6 months FOR FREE. The value of this offer is over NT$100,000!

And we had our first meeting of the potential candidates yesterday:

We have a LOT of potential candidates and some couldn’t attend this meeting so we’ll be meeting with more this next week. We’re going to do our best to show how we think women should be trained and try to change the fitness scene in Taiwan forever! Stay tuned for updates!

WANTED! One Taiwanese female! Do you want to get strong and fit like the picture below? Are you frustrated because you don’t know how to do it?
Hi, I’m Dave Chesser, head trainer and owner of the Formosa Fitness gym in Taipei, and I’m looking for ONE lucky lady that wants to get fit and gain muscle. You will get trained personally by me 3-4 times a week for 3-6 months FOR FREE. Here’s the requirements:
1. You have to join Formosa Fitness, where you will do all your workouts.
2. You have to agree to follow all my instructions about workout and diet, whether in the gym or at home.
3. You have to agree to allow us to take pictures, measurements, and videos of your workouts. The pictures and video will be tasteful, not exploitative.
4. You have to be willing to talk publicly on our Facebook pages about the process.
5. You have to agree to do this for a minimum of three months and up to six months.

In exchange for that, you will receive 3-4 private sessions a week for 3-6 months FOR FREE. The value of this offer is over NT$100,000!

Please send a brief introduction describing your fitness history, any injuries or pregnancies recently, when you’d be available to train and what time of day is best, etc. along with a picture of yourself to: formosa.fitness”at”msa.hinet.net

Far too many people have this backwards — you look good (or not) based on what you can do. If you want to look good, then performance is the path.

We get very confused in the fitness community with six-pack this and mermaid-line that. That’s fake, cosmetic fitness. It’s selling the sizzle but not the steak. People like that LOOK fit and strong but they often aren’t. The general public is being sold a lie.

For example, six packs and mermaid lines are somehow used as examples of a strong core. The problem is that your core is so very much more than your rectus or transverse abdominus. The rectus is the six pack muscles and the transverse peaks out for the mermaid line. What about your back muscles? They’re HUGE. What about your glutes, some of the largest muscles in the body? What about the hamstrings? I know, you don’t care about any of them because they aren’t the “sexy” muscles that you see in the mirror.

Well guess what? Overtraining the abs with flexion exercises and not training the rest of the core will very likely lead to back pain, if not a back injury down the road. Didn’t read that in the “get sexy/look good naked now/six pack” advertisements, did you? That’s because that isn’t good for business.

HALF OF YOUR BODY ISN’T VISIBLE IN THE MIRROR! How bright is it to train only the half you see in the mirror? Seriously, isn’t that just asking for trouble?

You can look good AND move well. The two goals are not incompatible and even if the goal is to look good, moving well can still be the path. But if all you want to do is look good, you will fall for fake, cosmetic fitness every single time. Don’t make that mistake!